America – The Bold, Big, and Ridiculous

Three days since arriving on my home soil, and I am beginning to get disillusioned. At first the largeness and the ability to have anything you need at a finger tip was a novelty. How fun! Look at all the beers, all the vegetables, all the different kinds of toilet paper, juices, how do you pick a toothpaste? But as we drive back and forth from one humungous store to the next outfitting our camper for the tour across Western and Midwest America, I started to get a funny taste in my mouth. A kind of unfortunate wish I didn’t eat that taste.

As Hummer after Hummer drove by, as large after large human passed, as choice after choice presented itself I found myself wanting to bolt to back to my little island where you have to search 5 stores to find a part that might not even exist on the island and requires ordering from the states. Where there are only a few choices of cheese and frozen vegetables (expiration dates are for sissy’s), and once in a while a zucchini shows up that is not bruised and dented from the ship it came over on.

Upon further inspection I started to notice the empty yards. It was a lovely day, only 75 or 80 degrees F. Yet no one was outside. No children biking down the street, no one working in the yard. The huge yards, neatly manicured, recreation vehicles standing at the ready, but no humans. Where are they? In the cars, the SUV’s, going from one activity to the next, one store to the next. Zoom, zoom ya’ll.

‘Really,’ I say to myself, ‘you came from this why should it be such a shock? Why should buying product after product at super sized stores in super sized vehicles, then stopping by the super sized church be a shock?’ It is no wander that we Americans are huge, are ignorant, are dumfounded at the rest of the world. We have everything that we could possibly need neatly located on a shelf down the street in a huge warehouse of a store.

Ah but I know I am shell shocked. And they are good people, I happen to know that because I know many of them, and I adore them and love them, but the masses, the large picture, it just turns my little island head round and round a few times. It makes me appreciate living without. And it puts me in check when I get all excited at the ‘things’ you can get in America. And you know, it makes me long for a little island where you are spared the ‘As Seen on TV’ Margarita-Ville blender that makes perfect margaritas for $349.99, or the egg heel scraper to get those calluses off, or the $9.99 purse organizer.

Ah . . . America . . . Welcome Home

The silver lining!!!!
I am happy to report that many of the large warehouse stores are pushing reusable shopping bags as opposed to the plastic that is damaging so much of the world. Good job corporate headquarters! And yes, they do come in 'super-size.'

Without

I am learning to live without. Without power, without water, without computers, without internet. I am learning to live with patience, learning to change plans at a moments notice. To always have a bucket or two filled with water. To take a shower at 3am if you wake up and find that there is power, to grind the coffee beans when you can, to buy non perishable foods, to cook only with a butane stove and to eat by candle light. I am learning to enjoy the hammock, to do yoga on the balcony, and to get to the ocean to cool off. Through it all I am in a state of incredible gratitude. For with all there is to learn to be without these days due to the power being on a total of 12 hours a day and at random intervals, there is so much to be thankful for. And there is an incredible amount of love surrounding it all. My partner is home. And for the first time in many, many months, I am feeling complete.